The Rod of Asclepius
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Summary: Dr. Black Jack is taken to Hogwarts to treat a patient where he discovers a secret to his own past and some hidden talents he never knew he had.
1. Chapter 1

**The Rod of Asclepius**

_Introduction:_

_I was thinking about symbols one day, and the image of the commonly used symbol for the medical profession came to mind. Known as the Rod of Asclepius, it's staff with a snake coiled about it, which looks rather like something that an elder member of the house of Slytherin might have in his or her possession. The idea of a medical doctor with a sorcerer's ability came to mind, and what surgeon better to possess such latent powers than the greatest one in all Manga and Anime, Tezuka Osmau's Dr. Black Jack. _

_Chapter I _

**Serverus Snape** took his position as the head of Slytherin House seriously. He was responsible for the health and well being of the students who resided in the dormitories belonging to the great house. It was also his responsibility to insure that his students kept up the good name and tradition of the institution to which they now belonged. Naturally there was some rough horsing around among the members of the house, not to mention between those of Slytherin and the members of the houses of less noble lineage on the Hogwart campus. To a certain extent Snape let such incidents slide under the rug, but eventually he had to draw the line somewhere.

Three of his students were particularly troublesome at times, especially when they came into contact with members of the others houses. Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle were not the brightest of students, but when egged along by Draco Malfoy they could manage to get themselves in quite a bit of trouble. So when he was awakened from a deep sleep in the middle of the night by the incessant pounding of the heavy bronze knocker on the door of his quarters he wasn't surprised to find both Crabbe and Goyle standing there, their skin as white as if they had just seen a ghost.

Serverus unlatched the heavy wooden door to his apartment, and pulled on the ring shaped handle to open the door. Dressed in his nightgown and leather slippers, and holding a tallow candle in a silver holder, Snape opened the door, which creaked and groaned as the centuries old iron hinges slowly moved.

"To what do I owe your presence at my door at this late hour?" He said staring down at the two students.

"It's master Malfoy." Crabbe stammered. "He's taken ill quite suddenly."

"I think he might be dying, or maybe he's already dead." Goyle said, breaking into tears of fear.

Snape recalled the events of the day during his potions class. Malfoy Draco had been anything but ill, he had demonstrated extreme skill and knowledge during the lecture, and had put in a masterful performance during the laboratory portion of the class. Goyle and Crabbe on the other hand, and caused a minor explosion and made a huge mess. They had stayed after class to repair the laboratory room from the damage they had caused.

Serverus reluctantly put on a robe and motioned for the students to lead the way back to their dormitory at the other end of the floor. Snape grabbed a large cloth bag containing his potions kit and his wand, and followed the two boys. Malfoy was lying in his bed with his mouth open, some drool dribbling from his lips. His skin had a bluish-green tint to it. Snape picked up a small mirror from a night stand and held it near the boy's face. He could make out the slight fogging of the glass by Malfoy's shallow breathing. The professor felt Draco's wrist for a pulse, and seemed to show a sign of relief when he found one.

"He's hardly dead," Snape said, "But his malady appears to be caused by a spell or potion unknown to me. Have you been experimenting with an advanced bit of conjuring?" The professor demanded.

"NO, not us!" the two boys cried out in unison.

Snape looked around the room. "Is this Malfoy's desk?" he asked pointing to a large heavy oak desk near the window not far from Malfoy's bed.

"Yes." Crabbe answered.

Serverus carefully inspected the contents lying on the surface of the desk. There were quite a few textbooks stacked neatly at the back of the desk, though the thin layer of dust on them indicated that they had not been referenced recently. A small porcelain mortar contained a small amount of a damp powder. Judging by the amount of moisture in it, Snape realized that it had been prepared no later than the latter part of the previous day. A small black iron cauldron sat on the bench on top of a stand to hold it above the flame of a alcohol burner. There was a small quantity of a thick dark liquid in the bottom of the vessel.

Finally, Snape found the the clue he had been looking for. Slipped between two of the books piled up at the edge of the desk was a piece of dark parchment with a ragged edge. It apparently had been torn from the bindings of a book. Written in an alphabet of runes that the professor was familiar with, the text was actually composed in old Latin. It seemed to be the recipe for a spell and a potion, the purpose of which he was not familiar.

"I'll keep this for now." Snape said, folding the old paper and putting it into the pocket of his robe.

Snape opened his bag and searched though the multiple vials until he found what he was looking for. He pointed toward the common area of the dormitory and asked for one of the boys to pour him a small glass of water from the pitcher standing there. Into the glass he mixed a powder and held it to Malfoy's lips as he lifted the boys head. He managed to get the unconscious lad to swallow some of the potion by reflex. Snape gently repositioned the ill student in the bed so as to be more comfortable, and covered him with several heavy blankets.

"Keep an eye on him." the professor said. "We will call for a healer in the morning if my elixir hasn't revived him by then."

Snape returned to his apartment. He prepared a short note for Draco's father Lucius, informing him of his son's illness. He opened the window and gave a low whistle. There was a fluttering of wings, and a large horned owl flew into the room and perched itself on Serverus's shoulder. Snape held the rolled up note and the bird took it into its beak.

"Deliver this note to Lucius Malfoy, and be quick about it!" Snape uttered.

The owl left his shoulder and flapped out into the night. Snape closed the window and returned to his bed, but knew that he would get little sleep until the matter was cleared up.

* * *

**Pinoko **watched from the window facing the driveway leading up to the house and clinic.

"Who is that creepy old man in the wheelchair?" she asked.

"He is probably the patient that we are expecting." Dr. Black Jack told her.

Pinoko watched as the cloth covered wooden wheelchair was pushed up the driveway by a young woman in her early twenties. Parked in the driveway was a beautifully restored 1936 Rolls Royce Phantom III V12 powered automobile. Dr. Black Jack opened the door just as the wheelchair reached the porch.

"Welcome to my clinic," the doctor said.

"Thank you," the old man voiced weakly. "My name is Augustus Slytherin." The old man motioned to his companion to wheel him into the room next to the fireplace where the glowing embers still crackled."

"I can get you an heating blanket if you are cold." The doctor said.

"Thank you, but that won't be necessary," the man said. "It's warm in this room and the numb feeling will soon pass."

Dr. Black Jack noticed the staff that the man had laid across his lap. It appeared to be made of a dark hard wood, possibly ebony, and was capped by an ivory and gold grip. Carved into the wood was the image of a snake, curled around the staff.

"I see you are admiring my walking stick." The old man said.

"Yes, are you a physician?" Black Jack asked. "The cane appears to be a close copy of the rod of Asclepius."

"Yes, I've been told that before. Actually, while it does bear some resemblance to the medical emblem, this staff is actually one of the many emblems from my family's history." He explained.

"Very interesting," the doctor replied. "Well, let's get down to business, I assume you require me to examine you."

"Ellen, would you please give the doctor my medical charts and such?" Augustus asked.

The young woman handed Black Jack a parcel wrapped in brown paper and tied with thick twine.  
"This contains the results of the various medical exams that Mr. Slytherin has already had." She said. "You will of course want to examine him for yourself, but these records should give you an idea of what you will be looking for."

The doctor took the parcel to his desk at the other end of the room and unwrapped it. There were several x-ray images which he snapped into the viewers behind him and turned on the lights. Standing next to the x-ray viewers he compared the notes in the reports to the images on the plates. Dr. Black Jack wasted no time, he laid the reports down on his desk and walked back to where the patient was sitting.

"You should have come to me sooner." He said. "Your disease is in a very advanced stage. There is very little I can do for you, I'm afraid. I'm a surgeon not a sorcerer."

"Come here." the man said. "Closer please, bend down and let me see your hands."

Kuro Hazama stood next to the wheelchair and stooped down. He placed his hands in the old man's lap. Augustus took the doctor's hands and carefully examined them with his. He had a delicate touch and a highly developed sense of feel.

"Years ago, I had the power to heal myself." He said. "Age and disease have weakened my powers of concentration, so I now have to rely on doctors to do for me what I once could do for myself. I can feel in your hands that you have abilities that you have not yet taped into. I trust these hands. Please treat me."

"I'm afraid that is impossible." the doctor said.

"Is it a matter of your fee?" Augustus asked, motioning to the woman.

Ellen placed a heavy carpet bag at the doctors feet. "This should cover your fee."

Black Jack bent down and opened the bag. He reached inside and withdrew a handful of old gold coins and examined them carefully.

"I'm not familiar with this currency." He said.

"That doesn't matter." the old man laughed. "Those coins were struck by an ancient civilization now long gone. The metal that they are minted from is 23 carat gold. I think you can easily calculate the worth of the metal from today's exchange rates."

Black Jack nodded. "The coins will more than cover your fee." he said. "However I never take any money from a patient that I have not been able to heal. You would require many surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and probably transplants to effect a cure. I don't think your body would be able to stand the ordeal."

"There are certain rare herbs, roots, and extracts that can be used to brew some medical potions that you may not be familiar with," the old man said. "I can provide you with them. These remedies have the ability to extend the stamina of a weak patient so he may survive the unsurvivable."

"What you are suggesting borders on witchcraft." Black Jack said.

"You are obviously unaware of certain advanced technologies that my family has been in possession of for centuries," Slytherin said. "To any backward civilization, such advanced technology would seem to be magic, wouldn't it?"


	2. Chapter 2

**The Rod of Asclepius**

_Chapter II_

**Ron **Weasley yawned as he was awakened in the middle of the night by the light coming from the other side of the room. He got out of bed and walked over to where his room mate bunked and found Harry sitting at the desk next to his bed with a pile of books. Potter was attempting to read by the light of a guttering candle, while scribbling notes onto a pile of foolscrap. Ron drew his wand from his pocket and mumbled the light incantation causing the tip of his wand to illuminate.  
"What are you doing at this late hour?" Ron asked.

Potter pulled open a drawer on the desk and extracted a long tallow candle which he lit from the dying flame of the one on the desk. He carefully pried the stub out of the candle holder and replaced it with the fresh one.  
"Possibly a fools errand I'm afraid." Harry sighed. "Dumbledore entrusted me to do a bit of research for him, but so far I've found nothing useful. Even these books from the restricted section of the library haven't led me anywhere yet. Draco's looking over my shoulder in the library today, and the interference by his toadies didn't help the situation much either. Now I'm going to dread facing Professor Snape in class tomorrow since I've probably done a poor job preparing for his potions lecture as a result of the time I've been wasting on this project."

"Snape sure does seem to have it in for us in Gryffindor." Ron agreed. "He's always cutting breaks for those in Slytherin, and takes their sides in any confrontations."

"I don't know." Harry said. "I often get the feeling that there is something about Professor Snape that we just are not aware of yet."

"Well in any case, it's now nearly two in the morning." Ron said. "We'd better try and get some sleep if we are to stay awake in class tomorrow." Ron walked back to his bed and tried to resume his sleep.

Harry picked up the book he was reading to close it and set it back on the pile of books on the desk, when he noticed something.

"Hey, there is a page missing from this volume." He said. "I could have sworn that the book was intact when I borrowed it from the library."

Harry set the book down and blew out the candle. He found his bed by the moonlight pouring in though the window and quickly fell asleep.

* * *

**Dr. Black Jack **put the various jars that Ellen had brought in from the car on the shelf in his treatment room. He read the names on the jars of the various herbs, roots, and insect extracts and muttered to himself. Most of the various items were totally unfamiliar to him and the labels on the jars read like the contents of a sorcerer's laboratory. Still, he had used exotic herbal remedies before, most of which had come from places like the rain forests of the Amazon.

"I'll help you mix and prepare the potions you'll need for treating Mr. Slytherin," Ellen said. "He's taught me how to do it as I often assisted in his self treatment."

"We'll start him out on chemotherapy, and radiation treatments right away." Black Jack said. "I need to at least try and slow the advancement of his legions and tumors before I perform the first of many surgeries. Cancers have settled in his lungs, stomach, and brain. The latter will be the most difficult to remove without killing him, even with my alleged skills."

"Your skills are more than adequate for the task, doctor." Ellen said. "Have some faith in your abilities. Augustus does."

* * *

**Albus Dumbledore **looked up from his desk and cried out "Come in, Serverus". The potions professor pushed the heavy door to the headmaster's study open and entered, closing it behind him.

"You sent for me?" Snape asked.

"Yes, I've just come back from the hospital wing after looking in on Draco Malfoy and speaking with Madam Pomfrey," the headmaster explained. "Very early this morning, Lucius Malfoy barged into this office demanding that I start an inquisition into finding out who had poisoned his son. He yelled at me that he had found an owl note from you upon rising from bed, and that he had rushed over to the dormitories to find his son in a coma like state. He immediately had him rushed to the hospital wing with great haste, and then then came to me with his demands. I tried to pacify him, promising him that Draco would be getting the very best of care, and I then rushed over to see the boy myself."

"I am aware of young Malfoy's illness." Serverus replied. "I was called over to the dormitories myself in the middle of the night by two of the students in my house. I gave the boy a general healing potion that should have brought the cause of the illness to the surface. It appeared to be the result of some sort of self inflicted spell. I found this among Draco's books."

Snape extracted a folded scrap of paper from his pocket and handed it to the headmaster.  
"I think this is from an old volume in the restricted section of the library." he added.

Dumbledore took the paper and examined it. "It does appear to have been ripped from the pages of a volume that I am familiar with." he said. "The book is a collection of monographs on spells and potions for the creation of diseases, cures, and immunity to same. What is strange though, is that this is one of several books that I had asked Harry Potter to research for me. I wonder how Master Malfoy got possession of that page?"

"I should have known that Harry Potter would have something to do with this." Snape remarked.

"Come on now, Serverus," Dumbledore replied. "Potter had that book on my orders, and I wrote the permissions note for him to make use of the restricted section of the library on my behalf. "

"Potter was doing research for you?" Snape asked.

"Yes, and that is all I am going to say on that part of the matter." the headmaster replied. "As for how Draco came into possession of this page, I can render a few guesses as to that. More than likely one of your Slytherin house students tore that page from the book while Harry was not looking. By the way, did you find any evidence of experimentation in the boy's room, such as a damp powder or dark liquid?"

"How did you know?" Snape asked.

"Did you read this page?" the headmaster asked.

"Yes, of course I did." Snape answered. "It is written in old Latin in Rune letters. I am not familiar with the spell, or its purpose."

"If you read between the lines, there is a hidden message." Dumbledore explained. "The section of the book that this page came from is from a monograph on potions for the creation of plagues, and spells to make use of them. It is the darkest part of the book and this very page contains the instructions for the potion that is the basis for author's belief that he could extend life though the use of diseases tailored for the purpose. This leads me to believe that your idea that Malfoy's malady could be self inflicted is probably correct. For whatever reason, I think he was trying to conjure up a bit of dark magic that was way beyond his abilities and it backfired on him."

Snape picked up the paper from the desk and carefully re-read it. "It was late and I was tired or I should have seen this immediately." he said.

* * *

**Lucius Malfoy **felt his son's forehead and frowned. "What's wrong with him?"

"I really don't know yet." Madam Pomfrey told him. "He does appear to have been inflicted by some sort of spell, but I am not familiar with the nature of this one. There may also be a potion at work here as well."

"I found these two items in my son's room." Lucius told the nurse. He handed her a mortar containing a bit of white powder and a small cauldron containing a small quantity of a thick dark liquid. "Professor Snape informed me in a note that he had examined the contents of these vessels, but he was not able to come to any solid conclusions as to what the purpose of these concoctions were, or if they are responsible for his malady."

Madam Pomfrey took the two vessels. "I will make my own examination of this and try a few experiments. However, I think we may have to bring the boy to St. Mungo's Hospital for an expert consultation."

**Horace Slughorn **entered the hospital wing and walked over to the bed where the young Malfoy lay comatose. "I came over as soon as I heard about it." He said. "I hope your son recovers quickly."

"Thank you, Horace," the elder Malfoy replied.

"Do the healers know what's wrong yet?" Slughorn asked.

"It appears that my son may have been experimenting with things he was not prepared to handle yet." Lucius said. "However, I wouldn't be surprised if that half blood Potter put him up to this."

"Potter isn't a half blood, both of his parents had the gift." Slughorn quickly said.

"His mother was." Malfoy replied, "Which makes his bloodline impure."

"Never mind." Horace sighed. He knew better than to bring up the Slytherin rhetoric regarding Warlocks of less than pure blood, and now regretted defending Harry Potter in front of Lucius Malfoy.  
"I'm trying to come to terms with the illness of a family member myself."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Horace." Lucius replied. "Who is ill?"

"My great great uncle Augustus Slytherin." Slughorn replied. "He can trace his linage all the way back to old Salazar himself. Augustus has been quite ill for some time, and hasn't been able to make use of any magic for the past few months. The healers at St. Mungo's hospital were not able to do much for him, and in desperation Augustus has been seeking the aid of several different Muggle doctors."

"How shameful!" Lucius said mockingly. "Muggle healers? Barbaric!"

"I wouldn't be too quick to judge, my good man." Horace replied. "Augustus has shared his research with me, and I can see why he might put his faith in them to cure him. Like it or not, Muggles and Warlocks are still nothing but human beings. We have the same frail bodies, and suffer from the same ailments. Sometimes I think we just might be a bit arrogant in our beliefs that magic can cure everything."

* * *

**Dr. Black Jack **turned to Ellen giving her a questioning look.  
"If you are going to observe my procedures close up you will need put on medical greens and scrub up," he told her. "The operating room is kept absolutely sterile to prevent the transfer of germs."

Ellen picked up the pile of clothing, and carefully examined it. She frowned, but nodded.  
"Agreed."

"There is a bathroom just down the hall to your right where you may change." Kuro instructed her.

Augustus lay face up on the operating table. He turned to face the doctor.  
"I understand you won't be putting me under for this one?" he asked.

"The brain is incapable of feeling pain." Black Jack told him. "I will be using a local anesthesia while I am opening your skull, however it will be helpful to have you awake while I am probing the areas that need to be removed."

"I understand," the elder Slytherin said. "I can guide your scalpel, because I know exactly where the cancerous tissue is in my brain. I can see it with my mind's eye."

"You can?" the doctor asked.

"Actually, so can you." his patient replied. "You just don't know it yet."

Ellen entered the operating room. She now had the loose fitting green overalls hanging from her shoulders, her hair was covered with a tight fitting cap, and a gauze breath mask covered her nose and mouth. She walked over to the sink and scrubbed her hands under the nearly scalding hot water, and used the strong soap and scrub brush to sanitize her hands, as she had seen the doctor himself do. Finally she pulled a pair of surgical gloves over her hands.

"Very good." Black Jack told her.

"I'm the assistant!" Pinoko said, giving Ellen a slight bump to the side with her hips. "You are only observing!"

"I wouldn't think of upstaging you!" Ellen laughed at Pinoko.

Ellen's gloved hand reached into the pocket of the gown and she fingered the item she'd hidden there. Moving her wrist just slightly with the object in her grip she mumbled something under her breath. The pocket of the gown glowed for a moment, and then went dark.

Black Jack drilled three tiny holes though the shaved area of Augustus scalp, and then used a battery powered saw to remove the bone over the area to be exorcised. With the surface of the brain now exposed he brought his scalpel toward the tissue. Suddenly an image formed in his mind and hovered transparently in his field of view. Superimposed over his view of the surface of the brain he imagined he could see deep into the core of the organ and the cancerous tissue stood out like a sore thumb.

Augustus looked up into the face of the surgeon and could see the surprise on his face.  
"I don't understand this." Black Jack told the patient.

I told you that you had the ability," the patient replied.

Ellen looked at her mentor and winked, which the elder Slytherin returned.

The tip of the doctor's scalpel seemed to glow as he brought the tip to the area that required cutting. The doctor felt the scalpel guide his hand along the paths he needed to slice, rather than the other way around. As he removed the cancerous tissue, he noticed a structure in the patient's brain that he'd never seen before, but the doctor quickly forgot about it.

"I can feel the pressure lifting." Augustus said. "The affliction is gone. Thank you Doctor."


	3. Chapter 3

******The Rod of Asclepius**

_Chapter III_

******Harry **was glad that his first class of the day was an easy one. Filius Flitwick's charms class was practically a guaranteed 'B' grade so long as you showed up for class and appeared to be awake. If you took the effort to participate in the class once in a while you were sure to get an 'A' grade. The classwork was easy, and the professor taught the material in an uplifting maner.

Once he left the charms class, Harry dreaded what came next. First, an hour break between classes and then Professor Snape's potions lecture. Harry now headed to the headmaster's study to report on his lack of progress with the research he had been asked to perform.

Potter was greeted at the door to Dumbledore's study by the sight of the headmaster's phoenix perched on the coat rack by the entrance.  
"Ah, right on time Harry!" the headmaster said, looking up from his work. "How goes the research?"

"Not very well, I'm afraid." Harry answered, looking down toward the floor. "Most of the leads were dead ends."

"Excellent!" Dumbledore said. "But do keep plugging away at it. I will give you another list of books and scrolls to look through."

"I don't understand, sir." Harry said. "I just told you I didn't find anything useful."

"Yes, I heard you. However that in itself is extremely useful information!"

"I don't get it?" Potter said.

"Harry, it's very simple." the headmaster explained. "You really can't prove a negative fact, the best you can do is to repeatedly fail to prove that it is true, and then know when to give up trying. Now here is the new bibliography list for you to examine. Oh and do you still have the copy of 'Monographs on Dark Medicine, spells and potions'?"

"Yes sir, but I'm afraid that the book was damaged while in my custody."

"I'm already aware of that, don't worry about it."

Dumbledore took the book from Harry Potter's hands and laid it down on his desk.  
"You may return the rest of the volumes when you start work on the new list." He said. "I'll take care of this one."

* * *

**"****It's **been several weeks since your last surgery." Dr. Black Jack said. "The treatments I've been giving you, along with the ones that you have provided seem to have effectively cured you. I'm still at a loss to understand how your lungs and stomach have actually regenerated on their own after I removed the cancerous tissues from them. Normally, only the liver has the power to do that."

"As you are probably surmising, that is due to one of the medical potions whose recipe and a few of the ingredients I provided." Augustus answered. "Though without your surgical skills they would not have been effective. I owe you my life. I know you have a ton of questions, and I hope that one day you will discover the answers to them. Suffice to say that I was once a healer in my own right, in a community that you have never heard of."

"Which explains the design of that walking stick of yours," the doctor replied, "It does carry the emblem of a physician."

"Not a physician, but a healer." Augustus answered. "A subtle, but important difference from the point of view where my family comes from."

"You may consider yourself discharged from my care." the doctor told his patient, "but you should be examined regularly to make sure that the remission is permanent."

"A sound suggestion." Augustus replied. "In any event, I think we shall be in touch with you again."

Ellen wheeled the elder Slytherin out of the clinic and helped him into the back seat of the classic Rolls Royce that was waiting in the driveway. As Pinoko and Black Jack watched the car disappear into the distance, Pinoko tugged on the sleeve of the doctor's trousers to get his attention.

"He's a warlock, you know," she said.

"What?" the doctor said with some surprise.

"You know, a person that has magical powers."

"What makes you say that?"

"You mean you didn't notice? Oh and that woman Ellen is a witch." she added. "My woman's intuwishion tells me so."

* * *

******Horace Slughorn **returned to his home to find a Rolls Royce motor car sitting in the front yard.  
"I've been waiting for you, my dear great nephew," Augustus Slytherin said from the back seat of the large car.

"I see you have taken a liking to Muggle means of transport, great uncle!" Horace said as he approached the vehicle. "Let me give you a hug, it's been too long since we've had the pleasure of each other's company."

Ellen opened the trunk of the automobile, and removed the wheel chair that had been stowed there. She helped the old man into the chair, and Horace grabbed onto the handles and proceeded to push his uncle through the front door of his home.

"I'll be just fine now, Ellen dear," Augustus called to his companion. "You take your leave now, and go return the Rolls to the garage."

"Very well, sir." the woman replied. She got into the driver's seat and drove off. Once the car was a few hundred feet away, it disapparitioned with a loud crack.

"I take it that you've been cured by that Muggle doctor you've been seeing." Horace questioned his uncle.

"Quite so." Augustus replied. "My magical abilities have begun to return, though I am quite badly out of practice. Tell me, are the disturbing stories I've been hearing true?"

"I'm afraid so." Slughorn replied. "You-know-who's presence has been reported several times inside of, and in the area surrounding Hogwarts. It may not be very much longer before he manages to regain his physical body and return to life."

"Is the house of my ancestors involved again?"

"There are rumors." Slughorn sighed. "Lucius Malfoy may very well be involved, and yet his son Draco has currently taken ill and has fallen into what appears to be a self induced coma caused by his own meadling with the dark arts."

"You sound like you don't really believe that" Augustus asked, rhetorically.

"No, I don't." Horace replied. "Something else is going on here. We are going to need outside help. About this muggle 'doctor' you've been seeing?"

"There is a lot more to him than meets the eye." Augustus smiled, "Though he doesn't have the slightest inkling of his latent abilities."

"You're sure about this?"

"I had Ellen do some research, genealogy is her hobby after all. She was able to trace the doctor's family tree back quite some ways. There is a good possibility that his bloodline includes members of some of the most pure blooded families."

"Then we need to get him here to confirm this." Horace said.

"You can't involve Lucius, in fact he must not be aware of it until it is too late."

"Obviously!" Horace agreed. "I will have to get the headmaster's help on this."

"Yes, Dumbledore will be your best resource." Augustus said. "After all, he came to Potter's aid during the previous dark times. One more thing. I must be present when Dr. Black Jack is brought into the headmaster's study. A lot will depend on that."

* * *

******Albus ****Dumbledore **was busy reading though several scrolls and old manuscripts when Horace Slughorn entered his study and closed the door behind him.

"Albus, we must talk!" he said in a low voice.

"What's on your mind, Horace?" Albus asked.

"I'm worried about the matter of Draco Malfoy." Horace said. "Except for being able to swallow liquids by reflex, the boy is showing no signs of alertness. He's been in a near coma like state now for days. His illness disturbs me greatly."

"I'm aware of that, Horace." Albus answered. "Madam Pomfrey and her staff are keeping me appraised on the boy's condition. As of yet they have not made any decision about transferring him to St. Mungo's."

"I'm concerned that this may only be the start of a general plague here at Hogwarts." Slughorn came back. "I know that you and Snape are of the opinion that Malfoy infected himself, and that may actually be the case, but I fear that it won't be long before other students fall ill to this infection."

"I'm afraid that has already happened." the headmaster said. "Just today it was discovered that a student in house Hufflepuff has been affected with a similar aliment to the one that still has Draco Malfoy in a near coma state."

"I knew it!" Horace cried out sternly, slapping his hands down on the desk.  
"Think Albus, this has happened before! Only last time it was Riddle who was in the middle of it all! And under my watch! We need to bring in a healer from outside, someone who is not involved in the political turmoil inside of this school and the surrounding community. Someone who can look beyond the end of a wand for a solution to the problem, even if it does not involve magic. In any case, it is my opinion that the plague that we may be about to be overcome by isn't totally the result of Voldermort's eminent return. I do think that his hand may have indirectly released the infection, and that Draco Malfoy was an innocent pawn and a victim."

"I rather find it hard to think of Master Malfoy as innocent in anything," Albus laughed, "but it actually makes some sense. So you are thinking that magic alone isn't going to be able to defend us against this pestilence?"

"Exactly." Horace said. "In this case magic opened a door that may take Muggle science to close."

"I've heard that your great great uncle Augustus has come home after being healed by a Muggle doctor." Albus said. "Is this the healer you'd bring to help?"

"You knew?"

"I am well connected." Dumbledore laughed. "It will be difficult of course. However, I know of someone that could help."

"Hagrid?" Horace asked.

"Of course." Albus replied. "He was the logical one when we had to secret young Harry to a safe house. He will be able to secret your muggle healer into Hogwarts as well. I just hope that this muggle is up to the challenge."

"That's the thing." Horace said. "The reason that Dr. Black Jack has been so successful in the muggle world as a doctor, may be because he has healer's blood coursing though him. But we won't know unless we bring him here."

"Yes, but if he isn't up to the task, it might be fatal for him." Albus said. "He must be made aware of the facts before he agrees to this."

* * *

******It **was late in the evening as Dr. Black Jack sat in a well padded comfortable chair in front of the fireplace, with his pipe in hand. Pinoko was lying on the floor near the front door, slowly falling asleep while reading her favorite Tetsuwan Atomu manga.

A large BSA touring motorcycle with an attached sidecar descended upon the driveway, and made its way up to the end of the driveway by the front door of the house. A large man with a full head of hair and a heavy beard and mustache dismounted from the motorcycle and made his way up toward the front door. He carried a large bumbershoot in his right hand. The steps creaked from his weight as the man walked up them. He knocked on the door and waited for a response.

Pinoko was startled by the knock on the door. She got to her feet and carefully opened the the front door a crack to see who was there. Just as she did a bolt of lighting flashed between two clouds across the sky and the silhouette of the visitor became apparent. Upon seeing the large hairy man in the doorway, Pinoko screamed and slammed the door shut in fear.

"ACCHONBURIKE!" she yelled. "There's a GIANT outside!"

The doctor turned his head to see what was going on as Pinoko ran toward him. "Don't answer the door!" She cried, "There's a monster there!"

Black Jack pushed Pinoko aside and made his way to the door. He unlocked it and slowly opened it. Towering a good head and a half above him stood a mountain of a man, who smiled down at him.

"You are doctor Black Jack, are you not? Hagrid asked. "I'm sorry if I frightened your daughter."

"I'M THE WIFE!, NOT THE DAUGHTER!" Pinoko yelled, running forward to pound her fists on Hagrid's knees in her anger to the insult.

"Pardon me!" Hagrid said, "May I come in doctor? It's about an urgent matter."

Black Jack motioned for the visitor to enter. Hagrid had to bend down low to walk through the doorway without bumping his head. Once inside the house, he needed to stoop a bit low to avoid bumping into the ceiling.

"Perhaps you should sit down." the doctor said, offering the huge man his chair.

"Thank you." Hagrid said as he sat down, his gigantic frame barely fitting into the large, overstuffed chair. Black Jack pulled up a smaller chair and sat down next to his guest.

"You were recommended by a recent patient of yours, one Augustus Slytherin." Hagrid began. "It appears that a terrible plague is on the verge of spreading though out the countryside where I come from, and Augustus is certain that you possess the abilities required to prevent this catastrophe. I was asked to come and fetch you."

"Where is this place?" the doctor asked.

"It is in a land that you have never heard of, in fact very few Muggles know of its existence, even though it is close by." Hagrid answered.

"Muggles?" The doctor asked.

"Yes, people who do not have the gift of magic."

"I told you he was a Warlock!" Pinoko said. "I bet you are also!" she added pointing at the man mountain.

"True enough." Hagrid smiled. "Will you agree to help us, doctor? I must warn you however, that there may be some danger involved, though we will try to arrange for your protection."

"I've been in dangerous spots before in my profession." Black Jack replied. "I'm willing to help, for the right fee, of course."

"That isn't any problem, you can name your price and it will be paid." Hagrid said, "Though you may find yourself returning with a greater reward than you had imagined possible."

"I assume you want me to leave with you immediately." the doctor asked. "In that case, I'll need to pack my equipment."

"That won't be necessary." Hagrid said. "I see you have a fireplace in this house. You will be able to return later to get whatever you need. First, we must test you to know if you actually have the gift."

"Very well." Black Jack said. He picked up his cloak from the rack and put it own. Hagrid opened the front door and stepped outside, followed by the doctor and Pinoko.

"I'm sorry, you can't come with us, Pinoko" Hagrid said.

"But I'm the doctor's assistant!" she cried.

"I'll return for you later." Black Jack said.

"You better!" Pinoko yelled, as she entered the house and slammed the front door behind her.

Hagrid helped the doctor into the sidecar and buckled him in.

"Hold on tight, this is going to be a bit of a wild ride." Hagrid told him as he mounted the motorcycle and kicked the starter.

The large touring cycle roared down the driveway, and slowly rose into the air. The doctor was astonished to see the ground drop out below him as they flew into a cloud.

"Sure beats a broom any day, don't you think? Hagrid asked.

"I guess so." Black Jack said. "Though I only flew on a broom but once before."

* * *

_note: Black Jack did fly on a broom in the 1980 Astro Boy anime 'time machine' episode._


	4. Chapter 4

******The Rod of Asclepius**

**_Chapter IV _**

******Black Jack **had no visual clues of the route that Hagrid was taking, for they were surrounded by clouds for most of their journey. Once in a great while the surface of the earth would peek though an opening in the clouds, and then just as quickly the hole would close up again. On these occasions the doctor could sometimes see green earth beneath him, sometimes it was the peaks of tall mountains, and for several long stretches they were clearly flying above a vast expanse of open water, possibly the Pacific or Atlantic oceans. The queerest thing was that the sun never did seem to set for they were traveling in perpetual daylight. It was as if they were keeping pace with the rotation of the earth about its axis.

Time seemed to stand still, the doctor found that he actually had no idea how long they had been in the air. He was neither tired nor sore from sitting in the side car of the motorcycle for so long as they descended below the cloud deck at the end of their journey. Now flying over green rolling hills, the doctor could make out the tracks of a rail line. He blinked to clear his vision and saw an old steam locomotive pulling a train of passenger cars. The train looked like it was brand new, perhaps it was a tourist train, he thought for what rail line would make use of such an outdated piece of equipment?

Looming ahead in the distance he could see the towers of a stone fortress resembling a medieval castle. A river flowed toward the fortification, and there were several small hamlets or villages enclosed within the walls of the barricades. As the flying motorcycle turned toward the castle, it became clear that this was their ultimate destination. Hagrid pulled the umbrella from his belt and seemed to aim it at the drawbridge, which then began to lower down into the open position. The motorcycle came in for a landing on the cobblestone roadway leading into the castle, and they rolled over the bridge that spanned a wide moat surrounding the fortification. Hagrid came to a stop inside a large courtyard.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, Doctor Black Jack." the man mountain said as he dismounted from the saddle and helped the doctor out of the sidecar. Black Jack picked up the small black bag that he had brought along with him and opened it to inspect the contents. The stethoscope and the small assortment of scalpels were still securely stored away in the bag.

**The** doctor looked around him, taking in the sights. From the cobblestone streets, to the horse drawn carts and the oil lamps hanging from poles he could easily imagine himself in Europe during the middle ages, perhaps even inside of Camelot at King Arthur's court.  
"What is this place?" Black Jack asked Hagrid.

"You are now inside the center of the Wizarding world." Hagrid replied proudly. "Hogwarts is one of the oldest and most respected institutions of higher learning in the world of magic. But, I'd better allow the headmaster to lecture you on the history of this noble school. Come along with me, he's waiting for us."

It was a good long walk from the castle courtyard to the great hall that led to the offices of the headmaster. All along the way the doctor lagged behind his host to observe the scenery. Each of the hallways was lined with row after row of portraits, the faces in each of them seemed alive as the men and women in the pictures turned their heads to watch as the doctor passed by them.

"Takes a bit of getting used to, I suppose." Hagrid said. "Things in the magical world are not quite the same as they are in the Muggle one."

Finally they reached the portion of the castle that housed the school administration. Hagrid lifted the handle of the heavy iron knocker on the door to the headmaster's study and pounded on it three times, producing a loud echoing thunder from within the room.

"Please enter, Hagrid." came the voice of the headmaster from inside. "And please escort the good doctor in post haste!"

**Professor **Dumbledore's desk was located toward the back of the room, just in front of a circular staircase leading up to a balcony that wrapped around the room. The two long parallel walls of the room were lined with shelves and bookcases extending from the floor to the ceiling, a ladder running on a track provided access to the the upper shelves. The doctor could see what looked like thousands of old leather bound volumes on the shelves, most of which were titled in letters of an ancient alphabet that he had no knowledge of. Perched on a hat rack at the entrance to the office sat a large bird with golden scarlet feathers and a magnificent beak. The creature seemed to study the doctor as he passed by, and it squawked its approval toward the headmaster.

Sitting in a wheel chair next to the headmaster was the familiar figure of Augustus Slytherin, the patient the doctor had recently discharged from his care. A young boy dressed in wizard's robes and wearing glasses stood next to the wheelchair in front of the headmaster's desk. The lad had a scar above his right eye. A middle aged gentleman who showed a family resemblance to the doctor's former patient stood next to the boy.

"I am Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster of this school," Dumbledore addressed the doctor. "You've already met Rubeus Hagrid, the school grounds keeper. Hagrid is an old and trusted friend, someone I have often called upon to handle delicate tasks, such as bringing you here today. You also already know Augustus Slytherin who has been a resident of these parts almost as long as I have." Dumbledore then introduced the man standing in front of his desk, "This is Horace Slughorn, an instructor at this institution, and a former head of the house of Slytherin. He is the great great nephew of your recent patient."

"Ah, I thought I noticed a family resemblance." Black Jack said.

"Finally, let me introduce you to Harry Potter, one of our students." The headmaster continued. "Harry will probably be assisting you in your endeavors here."

"Yes, what is the nature of this plague that you need me to eradicate?" Black Jack asked.

"Hopefully, the infection won't spread to that extent." Dumbledore said. "At the moment, there are only two students infected. Their symptoms are that of a semi comatose state and discoloring of the skin. We believe the disease was created by an ancient spell and potion, however the malady does not appear to be reversible by magic. We also don't know the nature of its contagion, which may or may not involve wizardry. Hence we require someone with considerable skills in both."

"But I'm no sorcerer." Kuro replied.

"That remains to be seen," the headmaster explained. "In any case, Harry Potter will assist you."

**Suddenly**, the heavy oaken door to the study burst open as Lucius Malfoy barged into the room. The governor of Hogwarts looked around the room, and quickly laid eyes on the doctor. He noticed the traditional physician's bag that the doctor had with him, and he quickly spoke what was on his mind.

"So this is the Muggle healer that you've illegally brought in to treat my son!" the elder Malfoy yelled. "Blasphemy!"

"He's hardly a mere Muggle!"

In mass the assembled crowd turned to see where the voice had come from. Sitting on an upper shelf behind the headmaster's desk, the sorting hat looked down at the doctor and governor Malfoy. Normally, the sorting hat was an inanimate object, only coming to life when placed on the head of a student about to be judged for suitability in one of the four noble houses in the school. This time, the hat sat on no ones head, yet it had just vocalized an opinion about an individual quite a distance away.

"What means this!" Lucius demanded.

"Why don't we find out?" Dumbledore replied, as he reached up to the shelf behind his desk and removed the enchanted haberdashery from its resting place and carried it toward where the doctor was standing. The headmaster slid a chair from against the wall toward the doctor and motioned for him to sit down.

"Now let's see how this all sorts out." he smiled, placing the headwear on top of the doctor's skull.

The sorting hat opened its eyes and smiled. "A most interesting problem!" It said. "Where does this healer belong? I see great potential here! Probably the greatest healer who has ever lived, or ever shall live! His ancestry goes way back and far away to Mahotokoro for sure, yet he has blood ties from both Asia and Europe. Where shall we place him here in Hogwarts? Where does he belong? His healers ancestry and hidden strengths calls out for a place in Slytherin, yet his mannerisms more closely fit elsewhere. I can see a strong kinship developing along other lines, yes the good doctor belongs in Gryffindor!"

"What is this nonsense!" Lucius cried out as he ripped the sorting hat from the doctors head, only to cry out in pain from the burning in his hands.

"It seems the sorting hat has a strong self defense, Lucius!" the headmaster said as he caught the enchanted hat in mid air after it was flung from Malfoy's grip.

"I don't understand." the doctor questioned.

"Maybe I can clear things up with one more test." Augustus said. He wheeled his chair toward where the doctor was sitting and removed a long narrow wooden box from a pocket in his robe. He laid the box on his lap, and carefully opened it. Inside of the box was a beautifully carved wand with a leather handle, and strap. The wand looked like a miniature version of the walking stick that the old man carried with him, for it had carved into it the image of a serpent coiled around the body of the wand, stretching from the handle to the tip.

"This wand has been in my family for generations." Augustus explained. "It belonged to a many times great grandfather of mine who was one of the most famous healers in all of wizardry. This wand may very well be the original 'Rod of Asclepius' from which the legend sprung forth."

Augustus sighed and took a breath before continuing.  
"It is a fact that while a wand is made by the hand of man, they are unique individuals. A wizard does not choose his wand, the wand chooses the wizard. After its original owner passed on into the great unknown, this wand was handed down from generation to generation in my family, yet it would not work its magic for anyone, for it has not yet found another healer worthy of its kinship. When I was given possession of this instrument, I had hoped that it would take to my hands, as it did my ancient grandfather, but it rejected me as it did so many others before me."

Augustus motioned toward the doctor.  
"Take this wand into your hand and let it judge you."

"Blasphemy" Lucius again cried, reaching for the wand himself. There was a brilliant flash of light, and Malfoy was thrown back violently. He smashed into a tall bookcase on the wall behind him, causing a pile of books to rain down upon his head. The governor got up and brushed himself off. Gathering his dignity, he ran out of the room in a great huff.

**While** the others watched, Black Jack reached out for the wand. The box started to vibrate in Augustus's lap, releasing a humming sound. The doctor backed away from the box.

"Don't be afraid." Augustus said. "It won't bite you."

Once again the doctor approached the box and reached out his hand. Once again the wand started to produce a humming sound, that increased in pitch as Black Jack grew nearer, until it sounded like a choir of angels singing. Suddenly there was a flash of light and the wand was gone from the box. It reappeared in the doctor's right hand. Startled by it all, Black Jack tried to remove the wand from his hand, but it was stuck fast as if glued in place. The tip of the wand glowed and then all was quiet.

"It appears that the wand has chosen a wizard!" Augustus said.

"But I have no magic!" Black Jack said with a puzzled look on his face as he stared at the wand in his right hand. "I can't make this work for me."

"You will with practice." Augustus told him. "Are you sure you have no memories of ever having caused something magical to happen? You did exhibit the power of vision while you operated on me, you saw the cancerous legions inside my brain and your scalpel was guided by them, admit that at least."

"What guided my hands were my years of experience and knowledge." the doctor said. "Purely a kind of reflex."

"If you say so." Augustus muttered. "Tell me what do you remember of your childhood, something that shaped you into what you are today?"

"A very painful and tragic event" Black Jack answered.

"Tell us of it." Augustus said, "I know you don't want to relive it, but you can't escape it, and the clues of your future are in your past."

Black Jack took a deep breath. "Very well," he said.

"Towards the end of the second world war, my country of Japan was preparing for the invasion our our homeland by the forces of the allies, lead by the United States of America. Our government was convinced that this invasion would come by sea, and our defenses were concentrated along the portions of our shoreline that were the most likely landing spots for this attack. When the Americans dropped leaflets demanding our surrender with the threat of massive destruction if we did not, the military was even more convinced that the invasion was imminent. Land mines were laid along our shores, and barricades were erected. We had no idea that the final attack would come in the form of atomic bombs dropped on our cities. After the destruction of Nagasaki, our country quickly surrendered. For many years after the war, the land mines that had been laid in the path of the invaders that never came took the lives of many innocent Japanese citizens. There were so many of them, that they were never all discovered.

Years later, my mother and I were playing along the beach. That stretch of beautiful white sand was slated to be developed, hotels and apartments were planned for the area and it was our last chance to enjoy that part of the shore. I remember digging in the sand when I came upon the rusty casing of the bomb that had lay there for so long. I called out to my mother in surprise and she came running, for she had a horrible feeling that she knew what I had found. I don't remember the explosion, I woke up in a hospital having been sewn back together by Dr. Honma. My body was encased in bandages and casts, I could see out of only one eye because my face was covered with gauze awaiting a skin graft. Despite the fact that I was right on top of the mine when it detonated and my mother was several feet behind me, she had been more badly injured than I, and died shortly after I had awaken from my surgeries. I only saw her once after that when Dr. Honma wheeled me over to her room. She never regained consciousness."

"You were on top of the blast and should have received the full force of the explosion, yet your mother who was further away did not survive?" Augustus asked. "How do you explain that?"

"I can not."

"You are suppressing a critical memory." Augustus said. "Albus, I think we need the use of your Pensieve."

"It's over here." Dumbledore replied, removing a heavy cloth from atop of a pedestal. The Pensieve was a large silver bowl filled with a dark, reflective liquid. "Would you be so kind as to wheel my chair over there?" Augustus asked the doctor.

"What is this device?" the doctor asked.

"It is a means of sorting, saving, and examining memories." Dumbledore told the doctor. "With this you can lift the darkness that hides what your mind is keeping from you."  
The headmaster removed his wand from its pocket in his robe and held it above the doctor's head. "This may feel a little strange, perhaps even disturbing, but it will quickly pass." he said "Now close your eyes and think of that troublesome memory when you and your mother were about to be blown up by the land mine."

The doctor did as he was asked. The headmaster touched the tip of his wand to the doctors head and seemed to pull a silken thread from inside his mind. He deposited it into the Pensieve bowl, and then repeated the procedure several more times. Dumbledore gazed deeply into the bowl of the Pensieve.  
"I think we have what we are looking for," he told the doctor. "You may open your eyes now. Please look deeply into the bowl, and let your mind get lost in what you see."

The doctor looked into the dark liquid in the bowl. Slowly an image formed before his eyes, and he was transported back through time to the sandy shores of the Pacific side of Japan. He was a young boy again running barefoot over the white sands ahead of his mother. Sea Gulls flew over head looking for crabs popping their heads out of the sand. He started to dig, looking for shells and again he came upon the rusty remains of the relic from the war. "Mom, What's this?" he heard himself cry out, and he heard his mother running toward him and yelling for him to get away from where he was. Suddenly, time seemed to stand still. He could see the deadly device detonating and he willed the explosion back with his mind. He started to turn and run from the exploding land mine and had turned completely around when his saw his mother approaching. His concentration was partially broken as he opened his mouth to warn her away. He felt the flying shrapnel of the bomb hitting him, and his mind reached out to deflect what he could of it. All then went dark.

"Without knowing what you were doing, you used a very powerful spell to shield yourself from the bomb." Dumbledore told Black Jack. "Few Wizards can yield such powerful magic without a wand, and without uttering a sound, thinking the spell in their minds. That's why you survived the blast, you were able to deflect just enough of it despite how close you were to it. It must have been a very powerful explosive, because your mother who was much further away suffered still greater injuries."

"I remember now." The doctor said. "I remember feeling the force flow through my body, my will directing the energy. For an instant I felt like a god." He looked at the wand that was still clamped in his fist. "I don't know if I can trust myself to wield such power again, yet I think that I must learn how."


	5. Chapter 5

**The Rod of Asclepius**

_Chapter V_

**The** Riddle house had been abandoned for many years since its occupants had died under mysterious circumstances some time in the past. Many of the windows had been boarded up, and grass grew tall surrounding the building. Most of the homes next to the property had also been abandoned as the owners of those properties moved away out of fear, unable to sell their homes. Those who remained behind on the block often reported seeing lights in the upper stories of the abandoned Riddle house, as well as hearing strange and creepy noises.

On this particular night, if any of the residents left on the block of homes near the Riddle house were watching the upper stories of the building, they might have seen the eerie glow from the corner bedroom window where the two remaining occupants were conversing.  
"I knew we shouldn't have put our trust in Lucius's idiot son, Wormtail!" the voice from the large arm chair yelled.

"I'm sorry master," the hunch backed man creature replied "but I did exactly what you instructed, I left the parchment with the instructions and spells in the Slytherin house where the boys would find it. I planted the suggestion into young Malfoy's head and made sure he found the documents."

"You did well Wormtail, your devotion to the cause has been adequate," the voice continued, "But your selection of Draco Malfoy has left something to be desired. Still, the fool may have managed to have created the desired infection, and with any luck young Potter may yet fall under its influence. However I will have to call upon you to perform yet another task, just to insure that things do go according to our plans."

"What about the muggle doctor that was brought from Japan to Hogwarts?" Wormtail asked with a bit of fear in his voice.

"You fool!" The voice from the chair replied. "He is no muggle at all, and may actually pose quite a threat to me if he isn't controlled. You may have to return to Hogwarts as your rodent self to keep an eye on him, especially if he discovers the full extent of his his Mahotokoro genome."

* * *

**Black Jack** gently swished the wand that he still had clamped in his right hand though the air and imagined a steaming hot cup of green tea in his mind. Without warning, the desired object appeared out of thin air upon the desk of the headmaster, just two feet in front of the doctor. He reached out with his left hand and gently picked up the china cup by its ringed handle and brought the vessel to his lips. The contents smelled and tasted exactly like a premium Japanese grown Matcha green tea.

"Excellent!" Dumbledore exclaimed, "I knew you could do it! You do have a natural ability, you just need some careful guidance and instruction to discover it."

"But this is only a mere parlor trick." The doctor said. "I did what you suggested, I imagined a familiar object and concentrated on my desire to see it materialize in front of me, and then projected that desire though the wand."

"Yes, and you didn't need to resort to any form of incantation to do it." The headmaster explained. "You have the inborn talents within you. You must stay here at Hogwarts to develop your full abilities. However, first we need your help in the infirmary. I've already informed Madam Pomfrey of your arrival, she is awaiting you in the hospital wing."

* * *

**Madam Pomfrey** set aside a room in the hospital wing for the doctor to set up shop in. The two students that had been afflicted with the strange sleeping sickness had been moved into the room. Dr. Black Jack used his stethoscope to listen to Draco Malfoy's breathing and heartbeat. He took the boy's temperature with a glass rectal thermometer, which had the nurses in Hogwart's hospital wing giggling for a while. Madam Pomfrey carefully watched the doctor's examination of the boy, and seemed acceptive of his methods.

"Have you formed any opinion on his affliction?" she asked.

The doctor looked around him and sighed. "I'm going to have to bring back some of my equipment, and I'm going to need electrical power."

"I think we can arrange for that, Doctor," Argus Filch said. The school's caretaker had just recently walked into the hospital wing. "How bad is the boy?" he asked.

"His condition is stable, his eyes react to light, and I've observed that he is taking fluids by mouth via reflex." The doctor answered. "I'm going to need my microscope and EEG recorder if I am to perform any meaningful diagnosis."

"I actually have a microscope in my study." Albus Dumbledore said as he entered the room. "It's a bit of an antique, but I do have a weakness for such collectibles."

"I'd rather fetch my own from my clinic, along with some other instruments and my surgery equipment." Black Jack replied. "I'd also like to bring Pinoko back here as my assistant as well."

"Very well, I've arranged for your clinic to be temporarily attached to the floo network, you can return and bring back whatever you need." The headmaster explained. "Harry and Ron will escort you."

* * *

**The Doctor** stood in front of the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room.  
"Now explain this to me again?" he asked.

"It's really very simple," Harry said. "The floo network interconnects fireplaces as a transportation system. All you have to do is toss some of this floo power into the flames and as they turn green you clearly and loudly state your desired destination and walk into the fire. You will then be transported to the fireplace at the destination. Hagrid mentioned that you had a fireplace at your home, and the headmaster's request that it be placed on the floo network for your use has been granted."

"Doesn't there have to be a fire burning at the other end?" The doctor asked.

"Not on the arriving end, only on the departing side." Ron said. "If there isn't a fire on the other end, one will flare up on its own as you arrive."

"I'm afraid that we may scare the crap out of Pinoko when we arrive if she's in the great room." The doctor laughed.

Ron held out a bowl of the black powder. Black Jack grabbed a handful and took a step closer to the fireplace. He tossed the powder into the flames and suddenly the room was lit by an eerie green glow as the fire was transformed. The doctor walked into the flames and shouted, "Black Jack's Clinic in Japan!" Ron and Harry quickly followed the doctor into the fireplace.

* * *

**Pinoko** sat in the kitchen eating a huge ice cream sundae she had just made. Still mad at the doctor for having left her behind, she turned to the one thing that could calm her lonely anger, comfort food. Out of the corner of her eye she caught the glint of a bright flash of green light coming from the great room, followed by the sound of a small explosion. Startled by the event, she dropped the bowl of ice cream onto the floor as she ran into the next room to see what had happened.

Black Jack stepped out of the fireplace and dusted himself off. He turned to see Pinoko with a look of surprise on her face. Suddenly there was another flash of green light as Harry Potter and Ron Weasley stepped out of the fireplace.

"Acchonburike!" Pinoko yelled out as the two boys emerged into the room.

"I hope we didn't scare you too badly, Pinoko." Black Jack said. "I've returned to fetch some of my equipment, and these two boys accompanied me since I've never traveled by fireplace before."

The four of them gathered up some equipment from the examining and operating rooms and packed several large suitcases. "You'll be coming with me this time, Pinoko." The doctor said. "I'm going to need an assistant to help me treat at least two patients."

"We'll help carry these two suitcases back through the fireplace." Harry told the doctor. "You and Pinoko go ahead first. Remember to state the destination clearly!"

Black Jack put a single log onto the fire along with some kindling. He applied a lit match and blew under the log to get the fire going. It took a few minutes, but soon the wood was burning nicely.

"Will this be sufficient a fire?" he asked.

"Yes, I think that will do." Harry replied

Ron tossed a handful of floo powder into the fireplace and shouted "Gryffindor House!" as he pushed one of the suitcase though the fireplace, and followed behind it. He vanished in a puff of green flame and smoke.

"OK, now it's your turn Doctor." Harry said. "Hold Pinoko's hand and go through with her, I'll be right behind with the other suitcase."

"Are we going up the chimney like Santa Claus?" Pinoko asked.

"Not exactly, Pinoko", the doctor laughed as he tossed some floo powder on the flames and repeated Ron's announcement of the destination, "Gryffindor House." He held Pinoko's hand in his left hand, and carried the smallest of the suitcases in his right. He and Pinoko walked hand in hand through the flames. They suddenly found themselves in the Gryffindor commons room, where Ron was waiting for them with the first of the two largest pieces of luggage.

"Where are we, Sensai?" Pinoko asked.

"I think we are somewhere in Europe, though as I understand it we might be in between dimensions." Black Jack said.

"That is fairly accurate." Professor Minerva McGonagall said. The head of house Gryffindor entered the room just as Harry flashed out of the fireplace with the last of the doctor's luggage. "Hogwarts exists in a hidden fold of what muggle scientists would call higher hidden dimensions, but it is actually hidden behind the veil of visibility from muggle eyes in a parallel space to the muggle world. And yes, we are actually within a hundred or so miles from London, England."

McGonagall smiled at the doctor and Pinoko.  
"I take it that you are Dr. Black Jack." she said. "Welcome to Gryffindor. We've prepared a room for you in the dormitory." She bent down to see eye to eye with Pinoko. "And welcome to you too, Miss Pinoko-chan."

Pinoko meekly replied "Thank you." and then added. "You are a witch, aren't you?"

"Pinoko!" the doctor yelled.

"Oh, it's quite alright doctor." Professor McGonagall said. "Of course, I'm a witch. In fact, I'm an expert in the art of Transfiguration."

"What's that?" Pinoko asked.

"Why don't I show you?" the Professor replied, as she slowly shrank to a fraction of her size and turned into a black cat.

"Acchonburike!" Pinoko yelled out in surprise. The cat rubbed up against Pinoko's leg and purred loudly. Pinoko bent down and petted the black cat, which then purred even louder. Suddenly the cat backed away from Pinoko and transmuted back into the middle aged woman.

"You see?" McGonagall said. "Transfiguration is the ability to change forms."

"That's amazing!" Pinoko replied.

McGonagall turned to the two boys. "Harry and Ron, why don't you two take the doctor's equipment over to the hospital wing, while I get him settled in. When he's not working on our little medical problem, he's going to be attending classes with you."

Ron and Harry cast a lightening and reducing spell on the luggage to reduce their weight to make them easier to carry. Between the two of them, they then picked up the three large suitcases and left for the Hogwart's hospital wing.

"I still don't understand this." Kuro told the Professor. "I seem to have latent abilities as a warlock, and this wand seems to work for me." He pulled the box containing the Asclepius wand from his pocket and showed McGonagall its contents.

"That is the legendary Asclepius wand, Kuro Hazama." the Professor said. "The fact that it has accepted you indicates you truly are from a noble blood line. We are honored to have you here in Hogwarts and all of us in House Gryffindor wish to help you discover what is rightfully yours."

McGonagall escorted Black Jack and Pinoko into a comfortable double room. "These chambers are usually reserved for a family. There is a small bedroom off to the side of this master suit." she explained. "Your ward will have the smaller room all to her self. She should remain in these chambers while you are in class, as a muggle she can't be involved with any magic, except as your assistant in the hospital wing."

Pinoko quickly put on a pouting face. "I want to learn magic too!"

McGonagall patted Pinoko on the head. "I'm sorry Pinoko. You were not born with the ability to work magic, and it would be dangerous for you to get involved in the study of it in the school." The Professor waved her wand and uttered a quick enchantment. Two racks of clothes appeared in the middle of the room. "Since you will be studying magic, you need to dress the part Doctor," she said. "And I didn't want you to feel left out, Pinoko, so here are suitable clothes for you as well."

"Thank you Professor McGonagall." Kuro said. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to return to the hospital wing and continue my examination of the two patients with the aid of the equipment I've brought back with me."

"Please do." The Professor said. "I hope to see the two of you again this evening during dinner in school dinning hall." She waved her wand and chanted a brief incantation and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Acchonburike!" Pinoko cried out.

* * *

**The** Doctor adjusted the focus on his microscope as he looked through the instrument.  
"I think this infection might be bacterial in nature, I can see some unknown microscopic organism in the blood of both of the infected students." He explained, walking away from the instrument and motioned toward the head healer for her to take a look.

Madam Pomfrey placed her right eye over the eyepiece of the microscope and looked through the instrument. A look of wonder crossed over her face as she saw the blood cells floating in the plasma fluid for the very first time.

"I had no idea that blood looked like that on the small scale of things!" she exclaimed. "And yes, I can see something that doesn't look like it belongs there!"

"There are many different types of substances in the blood stream." the doctor explained. "Most of human blood is made of the disc shaped red blood cells that you see in abundance. They transport oxygen and nutrients to every part of the body. There are also the white blood cells that normally fight off infection. Unless there is such an infection present you normally don't see too many of them in a given sample of the blood. Once the body is infected, their number increases greatly. There are also many other small structures in a normal sample of blood, that you can spot in still smaller numbers. I have identified one that does not belong, it is probably our infection vector, a small bacterium of unknown origin."

The head healer slowly turned the knobs on the instrument that moved the stage upon which the slide sat. "This one?" Madam Pomfrey asked moving away from the eyepiece.

The doctor quickly returned to the instrument and looked at what was now in the field of view.  
"Yes, that is the unknown organism under question." He replied.

"Now for the matter of the required electrical power to run my medical monitoring equipment." The doctor inquired.

"That has already been taken care of." Albus Dumbledore replied as he entered the room. "I've researched the problem thoroughly. Observe!"  
The headmaster waved his wand while uttering an incantation. Several electrical outlets appeared on the wall where the doctor had stacked the EEG and EKG monitors on tables.

"But how?" the doctor asked.

"A bit of theft actually. Look out the window," The headmaster replied.

There now appeared a line of utility poles upon which were suspended two copper conductors on insulators. The very recently created power line ran off to the horizon and disappeared in the distance.

"I suspect that the nearby muggle operated utility company will eventually discover that a new feed line has been attached to their system, but they will assume that it is an error in their bookkeeping rather than an act of theft, if my spell has been accurate enough." Dumbledore laughed.

Within a few minutes the EEG monitor had been attached to Draco, the various wires clipped onto suction cup electrodes that were tapped to his forehead and shaved areas of his scalp. The doctor carefully examined the strip chart that the machine was now printing.

"This doesn't exactly look like a normal pattern, but it is far from the flat activity one would expect from a comatose patient." He said. "It's almost as if something is trying to take over his mind. I've seen similar readings from patients that were brought to me in a possessed state."

"So you believe in spiritual possession?" Dumbledore asked.

"Until today, no." the doctor replied. "Such conditions were always proven to be caused by a chemical imbalance in the patient's brain. I still believe that young Malfoy's condition is due to something like that, and the existence of the bacterium we've seen in his blood lends credence to that. However, under current circumstances it is also very likely that the bacterium has a magical origin. In that case," the doctor said removing the wand from his pocket and holding it up in the air, "I may ultimately need to use this to cure him, once I have fully learned how to use it."


	6. Chapter 6

**The Rod of Asclepius**

_Chapter VI_

**As **Doctor Black Jack was completing his examination of the two students that had been stricken ill by the mysterious malady, the door to the private room opened and another student was wheeled in on a gurney. Madam Pomfrey quickly ran to the door, and almost ran into Filus Flitwick, the head of Ravenclaw house.

"Don't tell me yet another student has fallen ill to this curse!" Pomfrey exclaimed.

"It would appear so!" Filus sighed. "Kiki Karikiya, a transfer student from Mahotokoro, who is in my house of Ravenclaw, was found unconscious in the girls bathroom by Moaning Myrtle late this morning."

"That makes one student from each house, except for Gryffindor," the head nurse gasped. "I have a feeling in my bones that there will be yet another victim of this strange disease before long!"

Dr. Black Jack and Filus Flitwick lifted the child from the gurney, and placed her gently in an empty bed next to Malfoy.  
"You would be the Muggle doctor that the headmaster brought in to help treat this illness?" Flitwick asked Kuro.

"He's no Muggle." Professor McGonagall spoke from the door, "though he is only now discovering his latent abilities. We hope that the doctor will be participating in classes here at Hogwarts when he is not involved with patients. It would be a shame to have his talents wither on the vine."

"Ah, a late bloomer!" Flitwick cried out. "Wonderful! Welcome to Hogwarts doctor!"

"Thank you." Kuro replied, accepting Filus's hand in formal greeting. "But now to the matter at hand."

The doctor applied his stethoscope to Kiki's chest and listened carefully to her heart beat and breathing. He pulled open an eyelid and shined his flashlight into her eye, and then repeated the procedure on the other.

"Yes, identical so far. Would someone please help wheel over the medical cart with my equipment?"

McGonagall produced her wand and waved it over toward the corner, causing the rolling cart containing the EEG and EKG monitors to slowly transit across the room and stop by Kiki's bed. The power cord connecting the cart to the wall outlet seemed to extend itself as its length was perfectly adequate.

The doctor connected the stick on probes to Kiki's chest and forehead, and wired her up to the instrumentation. Soon the rolling strip charts began to record the child's heart and brain impulses. Black Jack tore off the strips and examined them.

"She has similar readings to the other two students, there is no doubt in my mind that Kiki has the same infection, whatever it is, though I will draw some of her blood and examine that as well."

McGonagall, who had been watching the doctor carefully kept a concerned look upon her face.  
"So far you've only tried your Muggle methods on them," she noted. "You're capable of much more."

"Eventually, perhaps." Black Jack answered. "Up till now this is where my training lies, and I'm not quite ready to blindly throw science and medicine out the window until I've exhausted their potential."

"Very well, Doctor," the professor replied. "Soon enough, you will discover other skills and will appreciate the difference."

* * *

**Pinoko** paced back and forth in the suite that she and the doctor had been assigned to.  
"It's not fair!" she yelled to herself, "why do I have to stay locked in here while Sensai is in the hospital examining the patients, I'm his assistant!"

She walked over to the heavy wooden door which separated their suite of rooms from the hallway, and tried to open it. She was quite surprised to find that the door was not locked, although it was quite difficult for her to pull it open due to its weight and the fact that the hinges really needed to be oiled. Still, she soon found herself in the hallway. The problem was that when she looked to the right, and then to the left, everything appeared to be the same. Door after identical door, the patten seemed to repeat forever like looking between a pair of mirrors facing each other. She had no idea which way the doctor had gone. Even worse, she quickly realized that if she went to look for him, she'd probably never find her way back to her room, with all the doors appearing identical.

Well not quite, identical anyway. There were markings on each door, old rune letters that she couldn't read because they were from a very old language that most Muggles had never come across. Pinoko quickly ran back into her room and dug though the bag that she had brought with her. She extracted a box of colored chalk that she had packed, and removed a bright yellow stick. Then leaving the room, she wrote her name on the door as high up as she could reach.

"There, now I will know which is our room!" she said to herself. Pinoko took off to the left, along this side of the corridor she could see a light not too far in the distance where she hoped the passage would turn toward the hospital wing. As she walked along the hallway she had the creepy feeling that she was being watched. Sure enough, the eyes on the portraits lining the walls were following her! One of the paintings spoke to her, "Where are you going, Muggle?"

"Acchonburike" Pinoko cried out, "this is too much! Are you talking to me?" she asked the portrait on the wall.

"You must be the young assistant of that visiting healer, Kuro Hazama." it said.

"Yes, I came with Sensai, but he seems to have forgotten about me." Pinoko sobbed, "Do you know which way to the hospital wing?"

"Yes, it's not too far." The image on the wall said in a friendly voice. "Keep going the way you are and turn right at the first intersection of the hallways. Then keep going until you reach the main dinning hall. You won't mistake that, there will be hundreds of candles floating in the air to light the room. Go through the dinning hall and make the first right turn and follow that hallway to the end. There you will find the hospital wing. Only I must warn you, be careful not to wander from the path I just described, and don't touch anything you may come across. Your safety depends on that."

"Thank you very much." Pinoko said. "You're very helpful for a painting. Who are you?"

"In life, I was know as Godric Gryffindor." the painting replied.

Pinoko bowed in a polite curtsy, and hurried on her way.

* * *

**Harry** and Ron were glad that Snape's potions class was finally over. The lecture had been one of the professors most boring of the semester, and the laboratory period had been most trying. Ron failed three times to get the mixture of bat guano and lizard saliva quite right with the result that the frog he had been assigned to transform back into a tadpole merely grew more warts until it grew to the size of a large cat.

Harry had gotten his mixture right on the second try, and the first attempt was close, although his toad had looked more like a fish than a tadpole at first. Still, Snape had nothing but words of ridicule for both of them, and suggested that they should read several chapters in their text books and practice a variety of basic transformation potions for homework before the next class.

As they left the classroom, Harry could sense that his best friend was not feeling so great.

"Are you all right Ron?" he asked. "Don't let Snape get to you, you know that nothing we do is ever quite good enough for him."

"No, it's not that." Ron replied. "I think I might be having a reaction to something from the potions lab, I feel kinda dizzy all of a sudden."

Harry took a closer look at his companion and noticed that his skin complexion did appear to have a slight copper tint to it.

"I don't want to scare you Ron, but you seem to be turning a bit green in the face." he said.

"I think I'd better go back to our rooms and lie down for a while." Ron stammered. "We do have an hour before our conjuring class."

"That might not be a bad idea." Harry said.

Ron took about three more steps and suddenly fainted. He was able to control his body just long enough to collapse on the floor gently without hitting his head on the floor. Harry bent down and tried to shake his friend back awake and was shocked by the cold clammy feel to Weasley's skin.

* * *

**Pinoko** managed to make it almost all the way to the main dinning room without any serious incident. Just before she got there however, she discovered that her bladder was complaining that it needed to be emptied badly, and she was very happy to find the door to a girl's restroom plainly marked. She quickly ran in to do her business, but discovered that she had spectral company in the form or Moaning Myrtle who was on the toilet with her.

"Hey you!" Pinoko yelled out. "I'm using this one!"

The ghost moaned in the most spooky voice she could produce, refusing to get up from the seat that she was sharing with Pinoko.

The now frightened Pinoko found her dam burst as she urinated on her shoes. This made her very mad, and her anger quickly overcame her fear.

"Now look what you made me do, you damn ghost!" she yelled out. "You're despicable!"

Moaning Myrtle wasn't used to being yelled at in that tone of voice, and she started to cry.  
"You shouldn't have said that!" she sobbed.

"Gee, I'm sorry." Pinoko replied, "Don't cry."

The ghostly teenager suddenly seemed to take a more solid form, as Pinoko noticed that she could barely see though her any more. The poltergeist moved closer to Pinoko and examined her closely.

"You're a Muggle, aren't you?" she asked. "What's your name?"

"If you mean I'm not a witch, then you're right." Pinoko said. "It seems my Sensai is a warlock, only he didn't ever know it until yesterday. I'm supposed to be his assistant, he's a great doctor you know. Anyway, my name is Pinoko. What's yours?"

"I'm Myrtle." the ghost said. "I've been dead for over fifty years, and I've been stuck here."

"You live in this bathroom?" Pinoko asked.

"Actually all of them." Myrtle said. "I can travel though the pipes from one restroom to another, and I don't always stay in the girls room. Sometimes I take a bath with the boys!"

"Yuck!" Pinoko laughed.

"Oh they're not so bad." She laughed. "I really like the one called Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter?" Pinoko asked.

"I guess being a Muggle you've never heard of him." Myrtle said. "He's really famous here, and very cute."

"Well, nice meeting you." Pinoko said, trying to make up for the awkward way they first collided with each other. "I've got to get going and find Sensai!"

"Be careful" Myrtle said. "There are other ghosts in the hallway, and in the dining room."

"Yikes!" Pinoko said as she left the room and quickly scurried down the hallway.

* * *

**Pinoko's **eyes almost popped out of her head at the sight of the main dinning hall. Row upon row of tables were neatly setup, waiting for the dinner crowd to show up in a few more hours. The vaulted ceiling seemed to be miles above her head, as if it was lost int the clouds. Thousands of glowing candles floated in the air above her head providing a brilliant light.

"Achonburike!" Pinoko cried out. This place is enormous!"

"Well it has to be, young lady. Do you know how many mouths there are to feed in this place!" a voice came from behind her. Pinoko turned to face another ghost, this one dressed in clothes that looked more appropriate for a time centuries past. His most distinctive feature was a nearly severed head that hung from his neck by a thick wad of flesh.

"YIKEES!" Pinoko yelled.

"Oh, pardon me!" the ghost replied, as he carefully fitted his head back into place. "I didn't notice that you were not a warlock, I didn't mean to frighten you."

"Who are you?" Pinoko asked.

The ghost bowed as he replied, "Nearly Headless Nick" at your service, miss.

"Ha, that's a good one!" Pinoko laughed. "Bet you have a good time during Halloween."

"Actually, no." Nick sighed, "but let's not go into that!"

"Can you help me find the hospital wing? Pinoko asked. "I'm looking for Sensai."

"I'll be happy to escort you there!" Nick said, offering Pinoko his hand. Pinoko slowly took the ghosts hand, and was surprised that while she couldn't actually feel it, her hand didn't quite go though his as if it wasn't there. Nick led Pinoko through the dinning hall, and into the next wing of the complex. There they almost bumped into Harry Potter, who was half carrying, half dragging Ron Weasley over his shoulder.

"Hey Headless! I could use some help, Ron is dead weight." Harry laughed.

"I'll help you." Pinoko said putting Ron's left hand over her shoulder.

"Thank you" Harry said.

"Is the hospital far from here?" Pinoko asked.

"No, we are almost there." Harry answered. They walked forward into the a connecting corridor and arrived at the entrance to the hospital area.


	7. Chapter 7

**The Rod of Asclepius**

_Chapter VII_

**Wormtail **stood in fear in front of his master.

"It appears that you've messed up again, Wormtail!" the voice from the large chair reprimanded.

"I put the residue of the potion under Potter's pillow!" the quivering warlock replied.

"Obviously you didn't notice that the layout of the room changed since you were living there as Weasley's pet!" came the reply. "Still, all is not lost, with Ron Weasley under my control I can get to Potter eventually. It's too bad that the Draco lad was so careless in following the directions we left him. This spell should have taken hold at once, it now appears to be a creeping infection and I must take my time tightening my grip or I'll loose hold of them. However, there is the matter of this Black Jack. He is becoming more and more dangerous. It may become necessary to deal with him earlier that I had hoped. In order to keep and eye on the doctor we will have to gain the cooperation of someone close to him. I think a hypnotic spell should do the trick. You'll have to transfigure into the image of someone at the school to avoid suspicion to do it. Do you think you can handle the task?"

"Yes, my Lord!" Wormtail babbled. "I won't fail you."

"Good, then take this, you know what to do with it!"

Wormtail took the crystal sphere from the bony hand and carefully wrapped it in a square of cloth. He placed the object into his pocket and left the house.

* * *

**Ernest** Macmillan, Ron Weasley, Kiki Karikiya, and Draco Malfoy faced each other in the dark, misty void. A creepy echo reverberated in their ears, the sound rising and falling slowly, sounding like a heavy door swinging on rusty hinges, or a large rusty chain being dragged across a cobble stone street.

"Where are we?" Ron asked, not really expecting an answer from anyone in the group.

"How did we get here?" Ernest added.

Kiki sobbed, rubbing her eyes. "I'm scared! I don't remember being transported here."

Draco Malfoy tried to be brave and take charge of the situation. "It's that Harry Potter who's done this!" he exclaimed. "I know he's had it in for me every since our first year hear at Hogwarts. I found his research on some special dark spell and tried to master it before he could use it against me. The tricky bastard! He must have set it up to backfire on me, and look what happened!"

"How dare you!" Ron cried out reaching for his wand, but not finding it. "Harry was doing that research for the headmaster, he had no intention of tricking you, though you bloody well deserve it!"

"Yeah, then how do you explain how you are now in the same situation as me and the rest of us?'

"You blind idiot!" Macmillan yelled, reaching out to slap Draco across the face. "Don't you see the obvious. There is one of us from each of the four houses here in this limbo state, where ever that is. Surly we are being manipulated by a much greater evil!"

"Yes! That must be it!" Kiki said. "This can only be the work of Lord Voldermort!"

**The **mist between the four students began to swirl and slowly lift revealing a hazy holographic image of a tall, slender wizard. The apparition was bald and almost faceless, having but two nostril slits for a nose, lidless slits with lizard like eyes, and a thin almost lip less mouth.

"You dare speak my name!" he laughed mockingly, waving his wand. "You are not at all what I was hoping for, but between the four of you there may be enough energy that I can drain to bring myself back from the beyond. I was hoping for Potter, but with your help I may get him yet."

With that, the darkness began to become more powerful and the four students felt themselves slipping back into the nothingness from which they had briefly emerged.

* * *

**Pinoko **was sitting next to the table upon which sat the two monitoring instruments. Both the EKG and EEG recorders could be connected up to as many as four patients at a time using separate cables with multiple sets of electrodes. The EEG machine's four moving pens recorded one parameter at a time for each of the patients. The EKG readout displayed four traces on its LCD screen, plus four sets of pulse rate readings on separate seven segment LED displays. All four patients showed nearly flat line EEG readings, with enough background activity to indicate a somewhat above coma brain activity. Their EKG and breathing wave forms were normal for a sleeping state. Nothing had changed for several days. Suddenly the EEG recorder started to jump around like crazy. The brainwave patterns of all four of the students was all over the chart. The EKG readings also increased, showing a rapid heart and breathing rate.

"Sensai!" the nine year old sized assistant yelled out. "I think they are having a nightmare or something!"

Dr. Black Jack got up from where he had been examining Macmillan's blood sample and quickly marched over to the the line of four beds set up in the middle of the room. He could see the rapid eye movements under the student's closed eyelids, and muscle spasms though out their bodies.

"Yes, it would appear that they are undergoing a violent dream state." He replied. "This may be the precursor to a change in their condition, or it could mean something else."

The two of them watched and waited. After several minutes the monitors suddenly returned to their previous idle state.

"Just as I suspected." the doctor replied. "This is starting to take on a very dark appearance. It's a good thing the headmaster pulled some strings to get me into a few classes here. I'm certain I'm going to need to know how to use this thing." he added, fingering the wand in his pocket.

* * *

**After **visiting Ron Weasley in the hospital wing, Harry returned to the room he shared with Ron in the Gryffindor house dormitory. It seemed strange to him the way one member of each house had been afflicted by the strange curse. He wondered why Ron Weasley had been the victim and not himself, when it occurred to him that after the massive spring house cleaning earlier in the month, most of the furnishing in their room had been moved about and relocated. Ron's bed now occupied nearly the same space that his had, while his bed had been moved to the opposite side of the room to make for more space in the middle. He looked under and around Weasley's bed and then noticed the rat hole in the wall. Ron's bed hadn't been made up since he had awakened that morning, his bed clothes were still in the same heap he had left them just before they had run off for their breakfast and first class. Harry carefully lifted Ron's pillow and pulled back the blanket and top sheet.. He noticed a residue of gray powder on the bottom sheet. Being very careful not to inhale any of it, he carefully dusted some of the powder onto a scrap of paper using another sheet and then folded the paper up to contain the powder. He then placed the tight wad of paper into an envelope which he sealed and placed into the pocket of his robe.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a large Norway rat scurrying across the room to disappear though the hole in the wall under Ron's bed. The rat bore a strong resemblance to his roommate's pet Scabbers who had disappeared sometime during the recent school year.

* * *

**Professor **Snape looked up from his desk and stared at the student occupying the desk that had previously been empty dead center toward the back of the classroom. It wasn't hard to notice the newcomer, for he was a good two heads taller than most of the students sitting in front of him. In addition his two toned black and white hair, plus the scar that divided his face into two different shades made him quite the stand out.

"I see we have a new student in our class today." he announced. "Perhaps you would be so kind as to stand up and introduce yourself?"

The man stood up and straightened out his robe. "Good morning Professor Snape." he said courteously. My name is Kuro Hazama, although I usually go by the name of Dr. Black Jack."

"That's a strange nick name," the professor replied.

"Not really." Kuro answered. "My given name in Japanese loosely translates to 'black jack' in English.

"Ah, so it does." Snape came back. "Well, in my class we try to be a bit formal, so you won't mind if I address you by your given name?"

"As you wish." the doctor replied, taking his seat.

Harry Potter quickly turned to look when the doctor had stood up. He was a bit surprised to see him in his third year potions class, especially since the year was almost up, and the doctor had only just become aware of his magical abilities. Yet there was something different about him that Harry hadn't yet been able to put a finger on. It was almost as if Dr. Black Jack was a purely natural wizard, a rare breed, the only example in history that Harry had ever heard of was Merlin himself.

**Snape's** lecture went quickly that morning, and he excused the class early without any laboratory session. Harry waited by the door for the doctor to exit the room and quickly followed him down the hallway. When they were out of earshot of anyone else he reached into his pocket, and withdrew the envelope containing the powder he'd found on Ron's bed.

"Doctor Black Jack?" Harry quavered.

"Yes Harry?" the doctor acknowledged.

"Have you gotten anywhere with the treatment of the four students in the hospital?" He asked.

Black Jack noticed the boy's right hand folded up into a fist with something held tightly inside. "I suspect you've got something to show me?" he asked.

"Yes, I found this powder on Ron Weasley's bed. I suspect it was meant for me, whoever left it there didn't know the room's layout had been changed." he said, handing the envelope to the doctor. "There is a gray powder wrapped up in paper inside that envelope, it might be the cause of the infection. I caught site of Ron's pet rat in our room, he'd been missing since before we did our spring cleaning and moved things about."

"You suspect the rat placed the strange powder in Ron's bed, thinking it was yours?" Black Jack asked.

"Yes, exactly." Harry said. "Scabbers might very well be capable of transfiguration, he might really be a wizard who kept the form of a rat for sometime to spy on us as Ron's pet."

"Yes, I think that makes some sense." Kuro replied. "The tie in with the dark lord is beginning to become clear."

"You know about Voldermort?" Harry asked.

"I've been doing my homework, Harry." the doctor answered. "The headmaster and professor McGonagall have been rather helpful in getting me up to speed on recent history here at Hogwarts."

* * *

**Black Jack **carefully poured the powder that Harry had given him into a petri dish and placed a cover over the vessel after first using a moist wire to pick up a few grains of it. He placed a droplet of water containing the substance in the well of a glass slide, and lowered a cover slip over it. He then placed the slide under his microscope and carefully adjusted the focus. There was nothing much unusual about the powder's appearance, it resembled talcum in it's appearance under 100X magnification. There was however something in between the grains that remained invisible at the low power setting of the instrument. Kuro switched the objective lens to one of 400X power and refocused the microscope. He could now make out the many small somethings swimming between the grains. When he moved the slide to bring the edge of one of the grains into view and carefully focused in he could make out the many indentations on the powder grain, and what appeared to be tunnels or caves on its surface.

He switched to the 1200 X objective and readjusted the light. It was now clear that those swimming objects were strange microbe like objects, but they didn't appear like any bacterium that he'd ever seen before. In fact, they almost looked like nano sized robots, and the grains of powder now looked like miniature factories for the manufacture of the nano bots.

He needed a closer view, but he had the most powerful objective already in play. A thought came into his mind, and he reached into the right front pocket of his robe and extracted the Asclepius wand. He thought of what he desired and waved the wand over the microscope. He felt a twinge flow through his hand and saw a brief glow of light from the tip of the carved snake head at the end of the wand.

The doctor rotated the lens turret one final position to bring the newly conjured objective lens into position under the optic tube of the microscope. The instrument now brought the specimens on the slide into view at 10,000 X power, about 5 times the power that a light microscope is theoretically capable of! There was no doubt about it, the grains of gray powder were activated by moisture. Ron must have inhaled the powder, once inside of his sinus cavity, the activated powder began to perform its function of releasing the self replicating nano sized robots into his blood stream. He could only guess at the function of these machines, but from what he had observed of his patents, they must make their way into the brain and latch onto the main lobs. Clearly this was an attempt at mind control.

* * *

**Pinoko **sat on the corner of her bed fingering the crystal globe she had found sitting there. In the adjoining room Dr. Black Jack was undressing and getting into his pajamas.

"I hope you are getting ready for bed, Pinoko," he spoke loudly. "I suspect we will have a busy day tomorrow."

"You might, busying yourself with learning magic," she pouted. "I'll be stuck in here by myself."

"Nonsense, I want you to watch our patients in the hospital wing." Kuro replied. "I suspect we will be seeing some change in their condition shortly, and I'll need you to send for me the instant that happens if I'm not there. There are a few lectures I need to attend. I must be ready to make use of what magic I can if necessary."

Pinoko rolled the glass ball over in her hands. She wondered who had left it in her room, it was so pretty! It must have been that nice professor McGonagall, she thought. The globe started to glow and it felt warm in her hands. Her mind drifted off for a moment, and then she snapped back to reality feeling sleepy. Pinoko set the globe down on the night stand next to the bed and pulled the covers over herself.

"Good night Sensai!" she cried out, closing her eyes and falling to sleep.

Black Jack walked into her room and smiled. He straightened out the blanket on the bed and gently kissed the sleeping child on the forehead.

"Good night, Pinoko." he whispered.


	8. Chapter 8

**The Rod of Asclepius**

_Chapter VIII_

**The **doctor rose early the next morning with the intention of checking on his patients before attending his first spells class. Pinoko was still sleeping soundly in her bedroom when Kuro peeked in there before heading over to the hospital wing. He noticed that she'd been sleeping with some kind of nik-nak that she'd picked up. He carefully lifted the crystal globe that had rolled out of her grasp and placed it on the night stand.

Madam Pomfrey ran over to the doctor the moment he entered the room that had been set aside for the patients under his care.  
"I was just about to send for you, Doctor!" she cried out. "Our patients were spirited away in the middle of the night!"

It was obvious that the four beds were now empty. None of the night staff in the hospital wing had noticed anyone entering or leaving the room and the guard that had been stationed in the hallway hadn't seen any of the four patients moving about.

"I was expecting something like this to happen," the doctor replied, "Though I was certain that it would not be for a few more days at least."

"You should have mentioned that, we could have increased security in this wing." Pomfrey replied.

"Perhaps, though I don't think that it would have made much difference." The doctor said as he hurried about the room drawing the shades over the windows. "Would you please extinguish the lights?" he asked as he reached into his pocket for the wand.

Madam Pomfrey quickly reached for her own wand and ordered the room lights to go out. "What are you trying to do, doctor?"

"I want to see just how our patients were removed from our care." he said holding the wand in his outstretched right hand. "I'm not sure if this is going to work, but perhaps I can look back a few hours in time ..."

Kuro held his left hand over his eyes and concentrated. He didn't utter a sound as he imagined going back in time and standing in the darkened room during the previous night. The tip of his wand glowed a golden color, and a mist started to flow from it and fill the room. Within the mist a holographic image formed.

Madam Pomfrey and the doctor watched as the image in the mist slowly sharpened in focus and became clearer. It was now two o:clock in the morning, if the clock on the far wall was correct. All was quiet except for the ticking of the clock, and the breathing of the four patients. Eventually, the quiet was broken by the scampering sound of a small rodent running across the wooden floor. It was a black and brown Norway rat, clutching silver spoon in its mouth. The rat stopped when it reached the intersection of the four beds in the middle of the room and it slowly began to grow in size, reverting to its original human form.

"I know that man." Pomfrey said. "That's Peter Pettigrew, he was a student here some years ago. He was a talented shape-shifter, along with James Potter, and Sirius Black."

They watched as Peter placed the silver key on the medical table near the four beds. He produced a wand and silently uttered an incantation while waving the wand over each of the patient's heads. Peter then walked away and shrunk back to the form of the rat and scurried out of sight. They watched the hands of the clock slowly advance. Perhaps thirty minutes after Wormtail had left the room life started to stir in the four patients. They sat up in their beds, and swung their legs out onto the floor. For a moment, the doctor and the head nurse got a glimpse of their eyes.

"My God!" Black Jack exclaimed, "They look like Zombies possessed by an evil power."

The four patients looked at each other and nodded, they seemed to agree on a singular purpose. Ron Weasly noticed the silver spoon sitting on the table, and motioned to it. All four of them reached out to place a hand on the spoon, the last one to touch it was Kiki. As her fingers made contact with the object it began to glow with a brilliant silver light that overpowered their eyes. The image in the mist became blinding, and then all went nearly dark. The four students were gone, so was the spoon that had been brought in by Wormtail. Then all went dark and the misty hologram was gone.

"What just happened?" The doctor asked.

"Amazing!" Madam Pomfrey said. "That was quite an impressive bit of magic for a tyro such as yourself. I'm impressed! As for what we have just seen, it would appear that Peter brought a portkey in the room with him, and left it to transport our patients somewhere. He also seems to have had the spell to awaken them, although it would appear that they are not in control of themselves and are possessed as you surmised."

* * *

**From **the windows of the corner upstairs bedroom in the Riddle house a bright flash of a sliver colored light could have been seen, if any of the neighbors were looking out of their windows in that direction. The being sitting in the large chair wasn't startled by the sudden apparition in the middle of the room, he had been expecting it.

"Welcome!" he cackled in an evil voice to the four zombie like youngsters now standing in the room in their nightshirts. "So good of you to drop in on me!"

Looking about the room he added, " Wormtail, Where are you!"

The quivering excuse for a human being that was Wormtail nervously entered the room from the far door. "I've done as you asked, master!" he said with much fear.

"Yes, and this time all seems to have gone according to plan." came the voice from deep in the chair. "Now perhaps we can spring our trap for Potter."

* * *

**Doctor **Black Jack and Pinoko were among the last of the stragglers that entered the main dinning room for breakfast. Albus Dumbledore motioned from across the room for the doctor to join him at his table, where Augustus Slytherin and Minerva McGonagall were also seated.

"It seems that there has been a rather worrisome turn of events during the night." The headmaster said.

"News seems to travel fast around here." the doctor answered.

"I had instructed Madam Pomfrey to keep me informed of events." Dumbledore explained. "I also understand you discovered how to time vision without any instruction, most impressive! So it now appears that whoever is really behind this so called disease has showed their hand."

"I was expecting something of the sort." The doctor said. "Though not for a few more days. Things are happening at a quicker pace than I had expected."

"I think we may very well find ourselves facing a much more serious situation rather quickly." The headmaster said.

The doctor nodded his head in agreement and looked around him. Pinoko who was sitting next to him was toying with the crystal sphere that the doctor had found her sleeping with a few hour ago.

"You've been rather quiet, Pinoko." he said, "Not that I'm complaining, but that's rather unusual for you. Are you OK?"

The doctors young assistant turned toward Kuro and yawned. "I'm OK, but I had some strange dreams last night." she said, turning her head away to gaze again into the crystal.

"Looks like we have ourselves a new Scryer," Professor McGonagall said as she got up from her seat and moved closer to Pinoko. "Look into my eyes, child," she said, placing her hand under Pinoko's chin to lift her head up. As their eyes met, McGonagall took the glass ball out of Pinoko's hands and placed it into the pocket of the doctor's robe. Pinoko smiled at the professor, and then suddenly exclaimed, "I'm hungry! Let's eat already!"

"Indeed!" Dumbledore exclaimed, as he stood up and waved his hands. At every table in the room, plates containing bread, fruits, and sliced meats appeared. Huge steins of Butterbeer, milk and apple cider materialized. "Dig in!" the headmaster ordered, and the breakfast began.

McGonagall found the doctor's ear and whispered into it. "There is something wrong with that bauble that Pinoko was playing with. I've put it into your pocket for now, it may be a clue to what is going on."

* * *

**Forty **minutes later the crowd hurried out of the great room bound for their first classes of the morning. Pinoko had a large smile on her face of one who was totally satiated. She suddenly emitted a loud belch, and quickly covered her mouth with her hands.

"I see you enjoyed the Butterbeer!" the doctor laughed, "but perhaps three steins full was a bit too much."

"Maybe, but it was delicious!" she said, "Even better than a parfait!"

The doctor and Pinoko made their way back to their room and entered. Black jack picked up a pile of books and stuffed them into a leather satchel. "I'm going to be attending a few classes this morning, and you are going to have to remain here," he told Pinoko. "For the moment we don't seem to have any patients, though that could change."

"You mean I'm stuck in here all day?" the young girl complained.

"We'll see." The doctor replied. "I've been told that there will be a demonstration of Quidditch this afternoon, and that I would be able to bring you along."

"What's Quidditch?" Pinoko asked.

"I'm not sure, but I've been told it is some kind of wizard's sport that involves flying on broom sticks."

"Now THAT, I want to see!" Pinoko said with enthusiasm.

"Well if you behave and don't leave the room, you will." the doctor said.

He picked up the leather bag and headed toward the door. As he exited, Pinoko could see the glow from his back left robe pocket.


End file.
